Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Coffee Coffee Coffee

Today the sweet (and somewhat overpowering) smell of coffee was drifting gently around. The reason for this was that we had added coffee beans to our black tray. I have been trying to keep the black tray as simple as possible (for many reasons - see below!) and coffee beans are a cheap, easy and effective item to play with.

We have a little girl in our setting who is learning by putting things into her mouth. This has meant we have to be very careful what types of 'messy' activities we do. Also its the beginning of the year so most of our children are still learning some basic skills.

The coffee was a great activity because it got them crushing and crunching (using one handed and two handed tools) as well as talking about what is happening. It also engaged their sense of smell which isn't always easy in the messy tray because unless your material is overly strong, it tends to be masked by other familiar nursery smells.

There was some fantastic language today, "crunching, "crush, "tiny pieces," and some very stimulated staff and children:)!

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All about me

Welcome to Nursery Nook. I'm James, I've been teaching in Nursery (3/4 years olds in school) for 6 years now and I've built up quite a passion for the Early Years. Over this time I've developed interests in all aspects of the Early Years - but in particular Mathematics and Communication. I started this blog in 2013 to share my practice and that of the wonderful staff around me. I've used it as a reflective tool so you might find a few conflicting posts! Feel free to add comments to any post, I always try to reply.